Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Navigator of the Seas (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[harryfat1]

2 hours ago, cft8 said:

I always enjoy your reviews and photos! 
 

Speaking of photos, a question - what app do you use for the tilt shift effect? I think I remember that you only took and iPhone. Tilt shift is my favorite effect on my camera, but with the quality of photos I can get with my iPhone I don’t usually bother taking it, but I do miss the effects that it has and am looking for a good app to use!

Ahhh, a fellow fan of Tilt Shift.  I have always liked that effect but I must admit I don't have the patience to do this in real-time as you have to activate the Tilt Sift app and then try to line up the perfect shot within the lines takes time.  I could have taken 3 pictures in real-time while I would still be struggling to get one in for Tilt Shift. 

 

So all of my Tilt Shifts are just post-production where I just use the Phone App to doctor up whatever pictures I took in real time.  

 

I have a Samsung Ultra S22 Ultra so I am not familiar with the Apple ecosystem but in theory, all the major Apps run on both systems.  Mine is an old app I used since 2014 it's called Tilt Shift Camera.  But I'm sure if you just search Tilt Shift or Miniatures in the App store, you should find many of them.  Just download a few and play with it.  Just a question of what interface you like as I'm sure they are similar in most ways.

 

I find the best Tilt Shift shots are when you are high up and the subject either is closely clustered (i.e. buildings) or transportation (i.e. buses or trains) as your eyes/brain is used to playing with miniature buildings and toys as a kid.

 

So if you are on the Oasis class ships, the aqua theater is a really good place for this as well and if you are in port where there are lots of buildings that would work nicely as well.

 

All this talk made me go back to some old photos and tried to see what Tilt Shift pics could have turned out if I had use the App instead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

[h20skibum]

5 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Are you going to be in Curacao on the Symphony on 12/20? The Odyssey will be there on 12/26, the day after Christmas. 

Yes, that is the one.  We will be there on the 20th, and Aruba the day before.  
 

Our Odyssey sailing was a little different, because we were sailing with Covid protocols, and at about 1/3 capacity.   

[perfect match]

@harryfat1, I’m back from our land vacation and have just now finished up reading this review. I’ve really enjoyed cruising virtually along with you on the Navigator and am looking forward to following along with you on Odyssey as well. I loved Odyssey and love the ABC islands! 
 

I’ll be looking for @Sea Dog in about a week. Looking forward to that review to get me through my post vacation slump. 

[momof3cruisers]

Took me a bit but I got to the end. What a lovely report on your cruise. Your family seems very fun and laid back. Haven’t been on Royal in about six years but am sailing Voyager in Feb so it was cool to see your ship pictures as I know they are very similar.

 

Thanks so much!

[harryfat1]

On 10/11/2023 at 10:17 PM, perfect match said:

@harryfat1, I’m back from our land vacation and have just now finished up reading this review. I’ve really enjoyed cruising virtually along with you on the Navigator and am looking forward to following along with you on Odyssey as well. I loved Odyssey and love the ABC islands! 
 

 

Thanks for reading the trip report even after you came back from vacation.  Much appreciated.

 

Yeah, I'm doing lots of reading and watching YouTube videos on the upcoming cruise as the ship and the ports are new to us.  Hopefully will have some decent pictures to share after we return.

[harryfat1]

On 10/11/2023 at 11:50 PM, momof3cruisers said:

Took me a bit but I got to the end. What a lovely report on your cruise. Your family seems very fun and laid back. Haven’t been on Royal in about six years but am sailing Voyager in Feb so it was cool to see your ship pictures as I know they are very similar.

 

Thanks so much!

Thanks for reading the trip report and the compliment. 

 

Yeah, the Voyager and Navigator are sister ships so you should have a decent preview of what RCI cruise is like post-Covid. 

 

We haven't been with RCI since 2017 so some of the things I reported were new to us as well.

 

It's folks yourself that my trip report is catered to as to pass along whatever info I can to the next group of cruisers to make their cruise experience 0.28% better (@bobmacliberty will like the two decimal places...)🤪

[booinla]

Thank you ever so much for your review of Navigator! Being a native Angeleño, I have sailed the four-day Ensenada cruise numerous times, on several different cruise lines, but haven't been aboard a Royal ship since the Viking Serenade days. (That's one for the Way-Back Machine.) But I am booked for Catalina & Ensenada aboard the Navigator Of The Seas for next January, so I came to CC to find a little info. Imagine my delight to discover your fun/fact-filled/entertaining post here. Many thanks.

 

If you'll allow one tiny addendum: I was surprised that you did not include a link to "26 Miles" by the Four Preps (or a cover version) in your discussion of Catalina. It's the iconic song about an iconic Southern California destination, but since the original is from 1958, I think by now it's just about faded away from memory.

 

[Fishfan0073]

@harryfat1 Sorry for the delay in posting a pic of the plug situation on Mariner of the Seas.  Life has been hectic since returning from our cruise the beginning of September.  We had a great time but my mom has been ill since our return and is just now finally feeling better.  Better late then never here are the plugs.  

[perfect match]

23 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

23 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Yeah, I'm doing lots of reading and watching YouTube videos on the upcoming cruise as the ship and the ports are new to us.  Hopefully will have some decent pictures to share after we return.

 

 

I’ll be ready to enjoy those pictures that you will be sharing when you return from your Odyssey cruise! 😀

Hopefully, I will be done reading your old Allure review by then. I’m reading it a little bit at a time and getting more excited about being back on Allure with every page I read. I know our upcoming time on Allure will be very different from the previous sailing. That one was shortly after the restart with only 2200 pax on board and everyone really excited just to be back on a ship again. We felt like we were on our own private super mega yacht! We’ll never see those days again!

[harryfat1]

23 hours ago, booinla said:

Thank you ever so much for your review of Navigator! Being a native Angeleño, I have sailed the four-day Ensenada cruise numerous times, on several different cruise lines, but haven't been aboard a Royal ship since the Viking Serenade days. (That's one for the Way-Back Machine.) But I am booked for Catalina & Ensenada aboard the Navigator Of The Seas for next January, so I came to CC to find a little info. Imagine my delight to discover your fun/fact-filled/entertaining post here. Many thanks.

 

If you'll allow one tiny addendum: I was surprised that you did not include a link to "26 Miles" by the Four Preps (or a cover version) in your discussion of Catalina. It's the iconic song about an iconic Southern California destination, but since the original is from 1958, I think by now it's just about faded away from memory.

 

Thank you for the kind words.

 

Glad the info has been helpful as I consider myself just a Newbie + 1 on my cruise experience, especially after Covid with the phone App being the dominant factor on how to organize your cruise.  So I just try to relay whatever info I learned from my cruise to pass on the tribal knowledge to the new group from the perspective of a Newbie.

 

Thanks for the musical video.  I have never heard of this song as I'm not a native So Cal person and this song is a bit before my time as my music range is somewhere in the '60s to '80s between Beatles and Madonna.

 

Have a great cruise in January but as you know the weather can be a tad chilly that time of the year.

 

[harryfat1]

14 hours ago, Fishfan0073 said:

@harryfat1 Sorry for the delay in posting a pic of the plug situation on Mariner of the Seas.  Life has been hectic since returning from our cruise the beginning of September.  We had a great time but my mom has been ill since our return and is just now finally feeling better.  Better late then never here are the plugs.  

Thanks for reporting back and providing the picture.  I'm sure other Newbies will appreciate seeing there are only 2 working North American plugs there.  So if you have more than 2 people or multiple electronic devices that need charging, bring a USB hub.

 

Yeah, these cabins need to be updated to more modern outlets especially since people can not bring surge protectors.

 

Sorry to hear your mom was ill post-cruise.  Hope she is on the road to a fast recovery.

[harryfat1]

41 minutes ago, perfect match said:

 

I’ll be ready to enjoy those pictures that you will be sharing when you return from your Odyssey cruise! 😀

Hopefully, I will be done reading your old Allure review by then. I’m reading it a little bit at a time and getting more excited about being back on Allure with every page I read. I know our upcoming time on Allure will be very different from the previous sailing. That one was shortly after the restart with only 2200 pax on board and everyone really excited just to be back on a ship again. We felt like we were on our own private super mega yacht! We’ll never see those days again!

 

We have always wanted to go back on another Oasis-class ship but they are either too expensive or not sailing to the places we wanted to see as we are still destination first and ship second. 

 

However, we are pretty much done with the Voyager/Freedom class ships as those were our last 3 RCI cruises.  After the Odyssey, whenever we take the next RCI cruise, it will likely be on another Oasis-class ship as we like the varieties that class of ship offers.   

 

Yeah, you will unlikely see another Oasis-class ship sailings to be less than 3,000 for a long time to come.  I don't think my old report is really relevant anymore as the info is so outdated.

 

Assuming we will talk again before your cruise in April, I will wait until next year to wish you a great cruise

 

[Fishfan0073]

On 10/15/2023 at 12:35 AM, harryfat1 said:

Thanks for reporting back and providing the picture.  I'm sure other Newbies will appreciate seeing there are only 2 working North American plugs there.  So if you have more than 2 people or multiple electronic devices that need charging, bring a USB hub.

 

Yeah, these cabins need to be updated to more modern outlets especially since people can not bring surge protectors.

 

Sorry to hear your mom was ill post-cruise.  Hope she is on the road to a fast recovery.

Mom is feeling much better thank you.

[Biker19]

On 10/8/2023 at 12:48 AM, harryfat1 said:

As for shore power, per this article, it sounds like the cruise industry wants to make this a standard thing for all cruise ships by 2035, not just in CA.

That seems like some greenwashing as evidenced by shore power use in the UK:

 

Cruise Ships Refrain From Using Shore Power (cruisehive.com)

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, Biker19 said:

That seems like some greenwashing as evidenced by shore power use in the UK:

 

Cruise Ships Refrain From Using Shore Power (cruisehive.com)

Wow.  I’m surprised you remembered this little tidbit info from last month’s posting given you must read over 500 posts daily from other people’s comments and yet you came back to tag this thread from the news article.

 

To quote Darth Vadar: “Impressive.  Most Impressive”.

 

Yeah, nowadays these ships are like the Hybrid cars people drive in that you can fuel it via gas or electricity. 

 

So if the math for someone to fill up their Prius is $50 at the gas station or $60 at the plug-in electric charger, what would they do? Most likely go with the cheapest solution and save $10 per tank to buy milk/eggs/bread/beer (not necessarily in that order).

 

Companies are just trying to find the lowest cost option to make their costs look good for their shareholders.

 

I wonder how things will change with more LNG ships being built as they are supposed to be cleaner emission? 

 

https://www.cruisehive.com/lng-cruise-ship-top-pros-and-cons/79671

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

I’m surprised you remembered this little tidbit info from last month’s posting

Search inside CC does work. 😉

[JamesEM]

harryfat1, gas in Myrtle beach today was $2.59 to $2.70, not too many electric cars here. Have a great cruise next month, I have one planned for Jan. 24.  

[perfect match]

On 10/15/2023 at 12:43 AM, harryfat1 said:

Assuming we will talk again before your cruise in April, I will wait until next year to wish you a great cruise

You’ll see me on your Odyssey cruise review from your December cruise for sure.

 

Nancy, who wishes she had been able to book the 8 day Southern cruise on Odyssey instead of the 6 day one that worked better for our vacation time schedule. 

[Coralc]

1 hour ago, JamesEM said:

harryfat1, gas in Myrtle beach today was $2.59 to $2.70, not too many electric cars here. Have a great cruise next month, I have one planned for Jan. 24.  

$4.94 here James. Cash price, that I saw. DH, said that (in an article) we pay $26,000 on average, per year more to live in California. Not for anything specific, just to live here, rather than other states. ☺️

 

So. We are going to take a look at Beaufort, SC..in a few years. What do you think about that area? 

[harryfat1]

22 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Search inside CC does work. 😉

Speaking of Shore Power, this cruise news came in via my news feed and it mentioned that Port Everglades won't have shore power until at least 2027 as they are still in the discovery phase.  

 

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/11/port-everglades-new-lines-new-ships-and-a-new-terminal/

 

A little surprised by that as many ports have already done the shore power setup (high cost aside). Think Seattle is at the forefront of US ports going more green:

 

https://www.portseattle.org/page/cruise-ship-shore-power-facts

 

I was actually going to look for the shore power line connection next month when I board the Odyssey at Port Everglades (and naturally take a picture) but that won't be necessary as it won't be ready for the next few years.

[harryfat1]

15 hours ago, JamesEM said:

harryfat1, gas in Myrtle beach today was $2.59 to $2.70, not too many electric cars here. Have a great cruise next month, I have one planned for Jan. 24.  

These are dreamland numbers for CA folks.  The cheapest gas price today via the GasBuddy App is $4.25 at Costco gas.  The most expensive within a 5-mile radius is $5.79.  That's double the price out at SC.

 

You have a great cruise as well. By the time you sail, I should be starting my Odyssey trip report by then.  It takes me a week to come home to get back to routine and gather all the pictures/info before I start my typical spiel.

 

What ship will you be sailing on and which itinerary? 

[h20skibum]

17 hours ago, Coralc said:

DH, said that (in an article) we pay $26,000 on average, per year more to live in California. Not for anything specific, just to live here, rather than other states. ☺️

I read that same article.  It did have a breakdown

 

My question is, how is homeowner’s insurance so much lower?

 

 

[harryfat1]

17 hours ago, perfect match said:

You’ll see me on your Odyssey cruise review from your December cruise for sure.

 

Nancy, who wishes she had been able to book the 8 day Southern cruise on Odyssey instead of the 6 day one that worked better for our vacation time schedule. 

Nancy,

 

Since you are in Florida you can jump on a cruise much easier than most people who are thousands of miles away so there will always be another 8-day cruise for you in the near future even though April 2024 didn't work out.

 

Thanks in advance for planning to read my upcoming trip report. 

 

We were just within the 45-day threshold of check-in.  Being 9.2 anal, I set a reminder on the calendar and got registered at 9:20 PM (12:20 AM EST) of day 0/day 1 and the best time slot I was able to get was 11:30 AM.  I'm not sure if there was a 10:30 or 11 AM time slot for our sailing.  If there was, hundreds of people must type really fast to fill the earlier slots.

 

By day 2 of the check-in schedule, the earliest time slot left is 1 PM.  This means that less than a 2-day window, the 11:30, 12, and 12:30 time slots were all gobbled up.  So be sure to set your calendar reminder to try to do it ASAP after midnight.

 

Although from Biker and others posts that Port Everglades is not always very strict on adhering to the pre-assigned check-in time so all this early sign-up is meaningless.  Maybe because Terminal 18 is super-sized for an Oasis-class ship and it can accommodate thousands of passengers in the waiting area.  Unlike San Pedro that can at best seat 100 people inside.

 

We also just pre-paid the gratuities before the price jumped to $18/pp as we were grandfathered.  Actually, since our reservation was made in an earlier period, we were great-grandfathered only obligated to pay $14.50/pp at the earlier 2022 prices.

 

Now the issue is what do we do with the OBC we have to the account as we have TA OBC as well as RCI shareholders OBC in both cabins. In the past, we used the credits to offset gratuities but now they are all prepaid, need to find uses for them.  

 

I also bought the photo package last year at the Black Friday sale at 50% off so no need to reserve money there.

 

So now I'm looking to spend it on possibly reserving specialty restaurants with the current Black Friday promotions to use some of the credits.

 

Harry, the cruiser formerly known as Cheapo Dad, is currently looking at YouTube videos for specialty restaurants to see which one is worth booking and spending extra $$$...

 

 

[harryfat1]

10 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

I read that same article.  It did have a breakdown

 

My question is, how is homeowner’s insurance so much lower?

 

 

Mark,

 

I wonder how old is the data from the article?

 

This can't be correct as many insurance companies have left the state from all the damages from wildfire in the past few years due to the drought and then last year's floods.  The insurance rate hasn't gone down at all with more companies leaving high-risk areas like CA and FL.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/why-insurance-companies-pulling-california-122420247.html

 

The only reason I can think of rates being somewhat lower may be because the state created a bureaucratic office of Insurance Commissioner that regulates the insurance industry so that might have artificially kept the rates lower. 

 

If the insurance company wants to do business in the state, the commissioner's office has some pricing rules/restrictions that may have influenced the rate.  But now if they just pull out and leave, that means less competition for the remaining few companies and that can't be good news on the rates...

 

 

[Coralc]

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

I read that same article.  It did have a breakdown

 

My question is, how is homeowner’s insurance so much lower?

 

 

I don't know Mark. Homeowner's insurance for the Bay Area house is about $1300/year, because we are pre-prop 13, so the property taxes are also low. Homeowner's insurance for the other house in a Red Zone fire area is $4800/year. It is not covered by prop 13, so the property taxes are also higher. (but not as high as in the Bay Area) 

 

Good point Harry. State Farm, Allstate, Farmer's and a bunch of smaller ones are all declining to write new home policies in California...Until the legislature changes things so they can make more money. 🙄 Stay tuned. Probably all of our policies will increase next year.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Coralc